Last fall, when our dozen-plus oaks unloaded their annual leafy bounty, we definitely did some raking and piling (so as not to be buried!). But we also let many leaves just lie where they fell or were blown, with the idea they could compost and thus enrich our forest floor and garden beds throughout the… Continue reading Putting Roots Down
My sister and I went to boarding school for two of our high school years. Not too far away from our parents; just three-and-a-half hours over mountain roads by bus. Living in Guatemala, we had to take in account the possibility of landslides, military checkpoints, and such things, which could extend our travel time considerably.… Continue reading A Longer View
I thought I’d share an update of sorts about a few areas of life. A little more than a year ago, I wrote a post along these lines, and it seemed about time for another one. I used to think that my journey on this earth would involve an end result, a final place where… Continue reading Before and During
We got out rather early a few Saturdays ago for a bike ride, knowing the rain was coming and wanting to get ahead of it. “Rather early” for me means “Grab a snack now and eat breakfast when you get home.” So I ate some fruit, and made sure I was hydrated before we left,… Continue reading Just Compassion
Saturday’s walk was a wild and windy one, with gusts in the 30-mile-per-hour range (at least) and the temperature in the upper 50s. In the brilliant sunshine, there was blue and green everywhere we looked—the blues so very blue and the greens so very green. We walked down the park road and entered the earthen… Continue reading Jubilance and Quietness
Yesterday marked what would have been my mom’s 84th birthday. One month from today, we will remember her passing 14 years ago. This season of growing and re-birth, of warmer temperatures, of trees leafing out and shoots pushing from the ground, arrives bittersweet for me. This is the time of year for Texas bluebonnets… Continue reading A Lament for a Friendship
I have planned my trip to the tax office very strategically. Not too late in the morning, so as to avoid the lunch crowd. And not too late in the month, so as to avoid the crowd of people (myself included) who typically wait until the last possible day to get their business with the… Continue reading Holding These Moments
This morning I read a local weather article about the wild swing in temperature between yesterday and today. (Yesterday felt more akin to summer; I pulled weeds in the little patch of earth outside our door and daydreamed of which flowers to plant. A strong north wind greeted me this morning and by midday, which was… Continue reading Those Wild Seasonal Swings
One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away. ‘What’s the matter, Mr. Frodo?’ said Sam. ‘I am wounded,’ he answered, ‘wounded; it will never really heal.’ But then he got up, and the turn seemed to… Continue reading On Wounds
On a long-ish drive to have dinner with friends recently, Dave and I listened to Carpenters songs for pretty much the entire trip. It was so much fun and I couldn’t get over how many lyrics I remembered, as if they came straight from some memory vault to my voice box and bypassed my conscious… Continue reading Just Begin
heidi chupp 